All Forum Posts by: Erin Monday

CC debt trumps mortgage in emergency. Get one and pay off your card asap. Make extra payments on your mortgage to pay it off early.

Late to the party, nevertheless, here is my opinion: I would pay off. I know debt is constructive if managed well but at the end of the day, you still owe money to your lender. 

Thank you, Brent. That's what I thought :)

Logan, with interest rates as low, isn't the prospect of paying off more realistic now than ever? This is really the reason for me asking this question.

Thanks for all the valuable inputs, guys!

Mark S., that is very important information I didn't know. I probably have to monitor when my payment is credited to my principal.

David, my emergency fund is something I have set up but I am still adding money to that. If I begin adding those extra payments, it would make sense to divide my money among the mortgage and the fund. Also, I did my homework and came across this new app called Motivate that helps make extra payments easier! https://try.motivatehq.com/early-access/ is the link if anyone is interested. It made things super quick for me!!

That's great advice, Mark. The best thing about this app is I don't necessarily have to set up my auto-payment through them, it is only an option. The numbers they run seems pretty legitimate and it cuts down the hassle of talking to my lender. I am doing the auto payment soon, very excited about it!!

It is a tricky situation when a baby is involved. Also, the house buying process in long sometimes. I would give them space and let them plan their time and broach the subject later down the line. If they plan on breaking the lease, they would be decent enough to talk about it with you, their friend and landlord. Unfortunately, you are bound to run into tricky situations like this when you rent your property out to people you have a relationship with :-/

Thank you for your very helpful advice, Aaron, Justin, Bob, David Dye, David Dachtera, Ralph and Victor. I am with you when you say put your money to work for you. 

Justin and Aaron, I am interested in using the auto-debit so that I am always on time and I also heard that it adds credibility to me. Bob and David Dye, what you said makes sense but I feel that making those extra payments when the going is good career-wise would go a long way if my contract business frizzles sometime down in the future.

Ralph and Victor, as you said, it would be really helpful to divide the money and put some into my principal and the rest into savings. But where do I draw the line? I did some research and found this helpful tool, https://www.motivatehq.com/early-access they have assessed my situation very well and I think it might work... keeping my fingers crossed!

@Account Closed That's what I am scared of too! But when I use a Mortgage Calculator and just add a little bit of Extra Payment each month, the amount of Interest Savings and less years on my 30 year term seems amazing .. I get so bummed about my mortgage that if I can actually get rid of it sooner, I'd do anything!! .. there must be a catch though? .. What if they don't apply my extra payments to Principal, then I wouldn't even get the benefit of those extra payments .. I think that's what you are getting at too

@Aaron Howell @Justin Howe Thank you! I wish there was a way to do this automatically for extra payments only! The less I have to deal with my Lender the better, but I guess it's important to make sure my payments go to Principal .. Seems like a good thing to do when I can afford it, right?